Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.  - Ephesians 1:3-6
 
 
When life comes at us hard, sometimes it is comforting to think that all that happens to us is happening to us for a reason.  We lose our job, but later find something better.  We are diagnosed with cancer but discover a renewed zest for life in our recovery.  But the reality is that sometimes when life hits us hard there is no gold pot at the end of the rainbow.  Sometimes when life hits us hard, our lives are forever changed -- and not always for the better.  Yet the Apostle Paul promises that in all things (especially in things that involve suffering), God is working for good.
 
One of the big lies told by popular culture today is the story of destiny -- the idea that our lives (and the events of our lives) are on a pre-determined cosmic course and we're just along for the ride.  The truth is that we have tremendous control over the choices we make and the lives we lead.  While there are many things in our past and in the context of our lives that is out of our control, how we respond today and in the future to the reality that is set before us is by and large our choice.
 
Yet the author of Ephesians makes the astonishing claim that before there was a creation, God chose us to be the body of Christ and that further it is our destiny to be adopted as Gods' children through Jesus Christ.  It sounds great until you begin considering the billions of human beings who do not claim to be followers of Jesus.  What kind of God would plan for the salvation of a few while setting up the universe in a way that guarantees the destruction of the many?
 
Like many of us, the writer of this letter is able to look back on his (or her) life and see that in so many ways, God was faithful.  In good times and in bad, God is faithful.  Often we can't see evidence of God's grace until after the fact but still, with our 20 / 20 hindsight we do indeed see that God is always there for us.  That's why the Apostle Paul can say that in all things God is working for good.  That is why this author can say that even our faith (in hindsight) comes as gift from God.
 
Be that as it may, we face today and tomorrow's struggles not as actors playing out a pre-written drama but as agents of free-will who will over and over again need to choose faith and hope as opposed to fear and despair.  And still the promises are true - we are God's children - destined before even the beginning of time to be loved and to know love.  These promises are true not only for us, but for all of God's creation.